1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system and in particular to a method and apparatus for printing a web object associated with a web page.
2. Description of Related Art
The Internet, also referred to as an “internetwork”, is a set of computer networks, possibly dissimilar, joined together by means of gateways that handle data transfer and the conversion of messages from the sending network to the protocols used by the receiving network (with packets if necessary). When capitalized, the term “Internet” refers to the collection of networks and gateways that use the TCP/IP suite of protocols.
The Internet has become a cultural fixture as a source of both information and entertainment. Many businesses are creating Internet sites as an integral part of their marketing efforts, informing consumers of the products or services offered by the business or providing other information seeking to engender brand loyalty. Many federal, state, and local government agencies are also employing Internet sites for informational purposes, particularly agencies which must interact with virtually all segments of society such as the Internal Revenue Service and secretaries of state. Providing informational guides and/or searchable databases of online public records may reduce operating costs. Further, the Internet is becoming increasingly popular as a medium for commercial transactions.
Currently, the most commonly employed method of transferring data over the Internet is to employ the World Wide Web environment, also called simply “the Web”. Other Internet resources exist for transferring information, such as File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and Gopher, but have not achieved the popularity of the Web. In the Web environment, servers and clients effect data transaction using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), a known protocol for handling the transfer of various data files (e.g., text, still graphic images, audio, motion video, etc.). The information in various data files is formatted for presentation to a user by a standard page description language, the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).
In addition to basic presentation formatting, HTML allows developers to specify “links” to other Web resources identified by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). A URL is a special syntax identifier defining a communications path to specific information. Each logical block of information accessible to a client, called a “page” or a “Web page”, is identified by a URL. The URL provides a universal, consistent method for finding and accessing this information, not necessarily for the user, but mostly for the user's Web “browser”. A browser is a program capable of submitting a request for information identified by a URL at the client machine. Retrieval of information on the Web is generally accomplished with an HTML-compatible browser. The Internet also is widely used to transfer applications to users using browsers. With respect to commerce on the Web, individual consumers and business use the Web to purchase various goods and services. In offering goods and services, some businesses offer goods and services solely on the Web while others use the Web to extend their reach. Many of these businesses will advertise or display their logos or trademarks on Websites.
However, once the Website is closed down, the logo or trademark disappears. Once the logo or trademark disappears, the effectiveness of the logo or trademark is lost and is reinforced only by the user accessing the same Website a second time. With the large quantity of Websites available to a user, the chances of the user seeing this specific logo or trademark a second time is minimal. If the user desires to go back to the same Website a second time, then there exists a probability that the user is already familiar with the business sponsoring the Website and the logo or trademark may not be effective in educating the user about the business associated with the logo or trademark.
Many users print a web page via a browser, however, advertising elements also associated with the web page are not printed. For example, a web page may contain advertising elements such as an advertising cursor or advertisements brought up in separate frames or windows. Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a mechanism to print these advertising elements when printing a web page which has spawned the advertising elements.